Dubai
Two social enterprise organisations, ‘Social Bandage’ and ‘1971’, have been making a difference in the UAE and pushing generations to make a difference in the community.
Social Bandage is just not any charity organisation but introduced a new approach of social enterprise in the UAE. Social Bandage was started by Aisha Saeed Harib in 2012 when she pitched her idea during Startup Dubai. It is a social enterprise project aimed at raising awareness through health campaigns for the poor who are in need of medical help. The organisation attempts to encourage current and future generations to participate in the initiative. The organisation has are 8 board members currently and various volunteers. Social bandage has initiated various campaigns, each with their own designated goal.
1971 on the other hand came to life after the 40th national celebration of the UAE in 2012. “A friend tweeted about cleaning the streets after the celebration parades on the 2nd of December. The response she got from people was overwhelming, so we planned overnight to go to the streets the very next day and start cleaning. A lot of people joined us.”
The drive was appreciated by Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai who tweeted about it on his official twitter account. This lead to the birth of 1971, the founding year of UAE and is directed towards bringing different communities in the UAE together.
The organisations have collaborated with the government and always work with trusted organisations to reach out the right people and know their effort is put to the right use. “People request the government and then the authority contacts us for the donation,” says Khalifa Bin Hendi, a member of Social Bandage and founder of 1971, an organisation that works closely in partnership with Social Bandage on most of their initiatives.
Social bandage started their first campaign ‘Give a Wheelchair’ (#giveawheelchair) with merchandising T-shirts on their website. The profit from every shirt sold was used to donate a wheelchair to needy people in UAE, Africa, and India. The shirts were also has expo 2020 logo during the campaign to raise awareness and support the country during elections. Till date, the campaign has donated over 800 wheelchairs.
The organisations do not accept any donations or fund raising because charity is a different approach to their social enterprise. They accept sponsorships in the form of gifts or venues provided by sponsors. “You can make a difference by purchasing any of the merchandise on the websites,” Bin Hendi says
Bin Hendi recalls one of the most touching and special moment with Social Bandage and 1971 in the organisations collaboration was visiting the children undergoing cancer treatment at different hospitals throughout the country. The team and volunteers visited Latifa Hospital in Dubai, Shaikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi and Tawam Hospital in Al Ain. The team gifted the children with toys and a special colouring book with the cover of a superhero along with a tag “I am a hero’. The organisations had collaborated with the creator of popular Emirati cartoons “Freej”, Mohammad Saeed Harib for the colouring books. The team as joined by none other than Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, head of Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Social Development at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City Hospital and coloured the books among many children at the cancer wing. “One does not to spend a lot of money to make a difference in these children’s lives. All you can do is buy 10 gifts and gift them to 10 children. It will make a difference in their lives as they are isolated in their wards,” Bin Hendi adds
One of the upcoming projects by the organisations is to revamp the children’s wing at Latifa Hospital in Dubai. “We’ve planned to introduce a cinema, popcorn machine, and some other artwork for the kids. It is a very dull section and most children feel isolated.”
The time spent at the children’s wing in hospitals tipped off an idea for the organisation’s latest initiative Moving Library (#movinglibrary). It is a unique idea of a moving library to be introduced all over the hospitals in Dubai. “The moving library is solely designed by us and our team. It consists of two L-shaped shelves that could expand with screens on both sides. It is a library with books and digital access. Every room at the hospital will have a special library button which could be used to request the moving library in their room. If the library is engaged at the moment, a time would be scheduled for the moving library to be bought to the room as it gets free. The idea has been sold off to the hospitals and the first batch has been sponsored.
One initiative that has been catching the eye of social media is the Give a Bike (#giveabike) campaign. Volunteers provide the organisation with either new or even old bikes in good condition. There have been 2-3 companies sponsoring the initiative with bikes. The team started by getting 10 bikes on their own and had a questionnaire sheet translated to different languages as many needy people in the UAE don’t speak fluent English or Arabic. The team started looking for underprivileged like labourers above the age of 40 or 50 on the streets and approached them with the questionnaire sheet. “Many labourers were surprised to see people reaching out to them. We tried to get behind their personal stories and asked questions regarding the distance between their work and accommodation. We took their Emirates ID for identification and record. Many of the labourers would require to shell off 50% of their salaries just to get themselves a bike. Some of them were shocked and some didn’t accept the bike. This initiative is our way of saying thank you to them. Now every week there are needy people waiting for us to donate them a bike,” Bin Hendi said
Social media has played an important role in the popularity of the organisation. The team members and the founder are active members on twitter and Instagram keeping their followers up to date with the latest initiatives. Many volunteers who join the organisation apply through messages on various social media platforms.
— The author is an intern at the Readers Desk at Gulf News.
